Sunday, March 29, 2015

Hey all! Congrats for making it this far in the school year without having a heart attack (or at least I hope you haven't had one.....that would be bad and insensitive of me)!! Here's a fun giveaway just for you. You can win any 2 products from my TpT store as well as from Kitty Kitty Kidergarten and Class Of Kinders! All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below:

Monday, March 16, 2015

This is such a fun time of year. In my classroom the leprechauns visit every year and reek havoc EVERYWHERE! There's green toilet water, to glittery foot prints, to upturned chairs and flipped name tags. We stay super busy with holiday themed lessons. We complete searches for sight words, ABC order activities, puppets, read Leprechaun stories, graph Lucky Charms, and so much more! One of my favorite stories to read this time of the year is the Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan.

It has great characters for character study and the story of events is easy for the minis to follow and retell. PLUS this book has a hidden mystery. Inside it has about 18 four leaf clovers hidden in the illustrations! Talk about FUN! The kiddos go nuts trying to find them searching through all the detailed drawings. Then of course when it is writing time they ALL try to hide details in their illustrations and stories for me to find!I wanted to add a bit of fluency practice for the kiddos so I created a fun Readers Theater with this holiday theme in mind. The kids have a blast acting this one out! It is all about a boy who catches a Leprechaun and tries to get his gold. If you would like to take a peek at it you can find it here: The Leprechaun's Gold. {Note: It is nothing like the above story, just share's the same name}

It comes in color and in black and white!

Plus it has a storyboard and characters for a retelling activity.

Thanks for reading to the end! One more quick thought, to celebrate the holiday I am throwing a sale for 3 days! My store will be 20% off!

Do you have any crazy St. Patrick's tricks that you pull on you kiddos? I would LOVE to hear them if you do!

Monday, March 2, 2015

How do you teach "How-To" Writing? I use tons of my own ideas, different ideas found all over Pinterest, and ideas from blogs. This year I began the unit like I usually do each year, by writing a whole class story about How To Brush Your Teeth. This is super interesting because the kiddos forget all the little details involved in actually brushing your teeth. Of course I brought my own toothbrush and tooth paste in and proceeded to brush my teeth following their steps. They thought this idea was hilarious. It's like they thought I NEVER brush my teeth. As the lesson goes on I do exactly what they say to do in order to model how to slow down and THINK ABOUT every little detail involved. They were laughing historically throughout the whole process but, when they got to the part where you spit it out, they forgot to mention to spit it IN the sink. Can you just imagine what happened next? YEP, I SPIT ON THE FLOOR!!!! They were insanely excited at this point of the lesson, telling me how wrong I was. Of course I had to point out that I only did what they told me. It was amazing to watch all the little light bulbs come on ALL around the room with comments like, "oooohhh" and "we forgot"! Their faces were PRICELESS!!! (Of course after this we went on to learn about steps, materials, more details, comparing How To stories to other stories and publishing. This was so much fun that I thought I would bring in a sweet treat for our next lesson on "How-To" writing. I began by stating, “ How would you like to build a snowman?” and after several excited SCREAMS and “NO WAY'S" (because we live in FL and have NO snow) I pulled out several materials: (We completed one whole class before they received their own.)

After several more excited screams, we worked together to build this little guy. Then we listed the materials and the steps we took to build the classroom snowman on chart paper. (Of course there was lots of turning and talking to discuss those tricky missing steps.)

Day 2:

I gave them all their own materials and off they went to build and write. Of course at the end of today’s lesson they got to eat their yummy snowmen!

Days 3-7:

We wrote some more, talked some more, and learned to transfer from the planning sheet to the “Fancy” sheet.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Teachers are the BEST kinds of HEROS and I am celebrating ALL teachers by joining in on the TpT Teachers Are Hero's SALE. Everything in my store will be 20% off On February 25. Just use the Promo Code: HEROES at check out!

Monday, February 23, 2015

We LOVE playing in order to learn. One of the best ways to play includes working together using math strategies that we have learned to solve problems. This activity provides TONS of practice with three addend math problems. All the kiddos need are dice, and their Math Journals! SUPER FUN to play, SUPER EASY to set up, SUPER INDEPENDENT practice for all!

First, we spread out around the room in groups of three.

Then, each partner takes a turn rolling the dice and everyone sites the number that each partner rolls in their Math Journals. They have to work together to decide what order they want to write the new addition sentence.

Then they work together to decide which math strategy to use to solve the problem. (For example, they use their knowledge of counting on, doubles, doubles +/-1, etc. to make the best decision on HOW to solve the problem.) Then they write why they solved the problem using that particular strategy (or strategies if they used more than one to solve).

In the end, their Math Journals are full of three addend number sentences that they have worked together to create, solve, and discuss!

After playing once or twice with the whole class involved in the outcome, the kiddos LOVE to grab their tools and play alone. This becomes a HUGE favorite in my classroom. (Parents, it is AWESOME/EASY for practice at home.)

It has 42 pages with 15 different whole class and center activities. It includes identifying numbers 1-20, addition facts for numbers 1-20, 1 more/less than numbers 1-20, and 10 more than numbers 1-10. It has color and black and white available within the packet in case you want to create one or two as Math Tubs/Centers and save the ink for whole class activities! The best part, it is only $2.00 in my TpT store. (Click the link above if you are interested!)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

This is a quick little game that we play in our classroom to help practice our sight words and our spelling words. The kiddos have so much fun playing that I thought I would share their excitement and just maybe introduce you to a new game (or remind you of an old good one) for your own class. {And parents if you are reading, this is PERFECT for you to do with your own student at home!}

1. First post the words somewhere that all the kiddos can see them. Then assign someone to be the "teacher/Partner A" and someone to be the "student/Partner B". Next have the "Partner B's" get whiteboards, expo markers, an eraser, and then bring it back to the floor.

2. Then the "Partner B" should sit with their backs to the words and have the whiteboards in their laps. Next "Partner A" should read a word (in their head)- from wherever you posted them - and quietly draw one letter at a time on the "Partner B's" back. {You should model the correct amount of force to use when drawing and how to use the TIP of their finger and NOT their finger nail......let's just say we learned that one the hard way!!}

3. As Partner A draws a letter then Partner B should be writing it on the board. I ask Partner A to draw the letters large, to go slowly-one letter at a time, and to NOT move on to the next letter until Partner B has written the correct letter on their board.

****To make this game more difficult take the board away and see if the kiddos can track the letters in their mind and then say the word.